Sunday 5 November 2000

Pic of the day: Chaos Node, dear Chaos Node! Home at last.

Coming home

The train trip from Bergen to Drammen was uneventful. I got a couple hours of low-grade sleep. I had a double seat for myself, but these were old cars and had a fixed armrest in the middle. This would not have been too bad if you could put the back of the seat down in a reclining position; and ordinarily you can. But on the seat behind me sat two teen girls, and behind them again two more; all of these were together and very social, so with much struggle they managed to turn the seat behind me. Now of course neither they nor I could put our seats in reclining mode. Somehow we still caugt a nap. I guess it narrowly beats sleeping in the whole double seat when you're not alone in it.

Bergen is a city with style. Witness the fact that I spent Saturday night there, partly walking the streets, partly waiting at the railway station, and saw no hint of drunken debauchery. (Saturday is binge drinking night in Norway, along with Friday.)

In marked contrast, I entered Drammen railway station a bit over 6 AM and was greeted by the insane tittering of the substance abusers who rule this place alone and unchecked. One other came in with a homemade rod and fished in the closed kiosk on the station.

On the bright side, the Signatur train from Drammen to Kristiansand wasn't even half full, and I got a whole double seat for myself, with no middle armrest. So I stocked up on sleep much of the way. In fact, I was lucky to get off the train at all. I am sure they did not announce Kristiansand at all. When a conductor came through the car to turn the seats before continuing to Stavanger, he found me sweetly curled up in my seat with my head down in my pillow-soft jacket. (No big surprise there - I am quite a curl-up person.) I barely managed to get out of the train with all my luggage before it filled with new passengers and set off for Stavanger.

***

And now I am home. Yes! Basement, sweet basement! :) Home is where the CD collection is. And my own telephone. I've read up on my favorite online comics. I've called SuperWoman (but she wasn't home). I've eaten yoghurt, and more yoghurt, and then more yoghurt again. I've showered as long as I wanted to and applied Gucci Rush fragrance to appropriate body parts. I've eaten too much chocolate and napped in my chair. (I get sleepy from too much chocolate.)

Home is also where the bills come. There were a few, snuck in among the advertising. There were two from Telenor, the monopoly provider of earthbound telephony in Norway. Well, almost monopoly. This is slowly changing. Very slowly. I have one account for Internet, and one for voice calls. I called for a whopping kr 4.27 (ca $0.45) the last 3 months, and paid a hundred times as much in fixed price for having the phone line. This too will change, eventually.

And do you know what? No, of course you can't! Infinity are coming to Kristiansand on November 16, or so they say. That's the band that plays the happiest happy music in the world. It may not be spiritual, but it sure is good craft. :) I hope the weather will be acceptable. And that I don't forget it. They are not nearly as big a part of my life as they were last year. I told you I am a fad person. (No, not fat! Fad. OK, a little fat too. But just a little.)

***

I must admit that when I was back on my brother's farm (formerly my parents' farm) I could see the reason in my little nephew's request that I stay there. Or, more realistically, move there. The place is just a tiny bit on the big side for a family like theirs. But give it time. Lil-SiL is not 50 for a while yet, and as the number of diaper soilers dwindle, the family just might grow again. As they grow to working men and women, things should gradually slide back in order. I hope.

As for my humble self, yes, I miss the enormity of freedom that comes with living on the very edge of civilization. After much cutting of trees it is now possible to see the neighbors to the east too, not just to the west. But it's more than a child's walk to the nearest neighbor to the south, and grown men could get lost trying to find people to the north - there are wild mountains to pass, one after another, some where even goats fear to tread. While there is quite a bit of wilderness left here, I share it with hundreds of other sururbanites. Somehow in my mind, the difference in quantity crosses a line into difference in quality. The people who live up there don't look in through the neighbors' window when they look out their own. They understand the need for room, and there is enough of it.

Even so, I like it here too. As long as I can live here in the Chaos Node, with the forest stretching almost from my door, and yet with a computer job within commuting distance. I feel that I have the best of both worlds. Well, at least quite good things from both worlds.

Who knows what the future will bring? Who knows even tomorrow? I do not. Right now, I enjoy today.